After Dark 》Minsung

11 》What Paradise Feels Like

"There," Minho shifted back in the desk chair, creaky coils squeaking miserably under the weight of his torso collapsing back into the support. His hands then moved to pause the blasting music ramped up, volume stabbing directly into the narrow channels of his ear canals as if he didn't already need a case of extreme hearing damage from anything other than the reoccurring tinnitus, headphones pulled down. Off his ears, onto the space around his neck. The padded cushions corralling the foam covered speakers brushing into his jaw and lips as he spun the chair around to face Felix relaxing on his phone (Texting his, 'Bestie', as he told Minho) in the corner of the casino's empty office space, "Let your boss know I finished your stupid fucking casino security job and—"

Wordlessly, Felix stood up, pocketed his phone, stepped over, and presented a cheque to him.

He snatched it up with a tongue stuck out to his brother. A gesture the other returned without hesitation.

Minho glanced it over.

Checked the amount.

"Do they need their data backed up? Their servers reinforced?" Minho hummed cheerfully, forcing an overly sweet grin up onto his lips. Cheeks filled up with mailable cotton balls puffing his jubilance out to the world presented, corners stapled with sheer metal prongs up to their faux height, the almost indistinguishable stench of Vaseline scrapped on his teeth to keep his cheer from shattering into a glare. Ensuring the cheque was properly written out, signature swirlfully circled from the alias of the casino's payroll officers, date dotted down to the second, he folded the cheque up and shoved it in his hoodie pocket while he rambled, "I'm a great chef, I can cook, clean— I'll lick the floors clean if that's what they want. What about toe pics? Do they take toe pics? I'll give them half off." 

"Thanks for helping, stupid. I'll see you out but you can head out first," His brother told, gesturing briefly to the impromptu laptop setup on the security desk; It's tangled wires wrapped up in a mystery stomped on an enigma, a complicated mess of tangled plugs Minho quickly had to adapt, overcome, improvise with upon not having his own desktop arrangement to assist the war he waged on those codes; The lines, on lines, battlefields of landmines danced around to not trip their furious anger to a misplaced step, the breaks in defense weaknesses, chinks to slip underneath reinforced armor; Kraken-like tendrils wrapped around the electronic vessels christened for adventure. A type of world Minho loved to explore, though Felix gave a perplexed look before turning on his heel and escaping.

The older closed his laptop down, removing the various wires hooking him up to the servers with tough yanks. Next the USB plugs for the detached keyboard and stylized mouse, which, yes, he had custom made because he was simply, cool like that. Tossing all which belonged to him into his typical backpack, sorting through the information he was given by the casino when he arrived earlier that day, colorful sticky notes posted back on the security desk, scratch paper he doodled on to keep his mind occupied and his hands working while he thought crumpled up and thrown along with the chrome laptop into the compartments. He checked once more for anything he may have missed, before slinging the bag over his shoulder and charging out of the office space.

The back workings of that wonderland on the otherside of the thick walls. Compared to the fantastical realm outside these walls, this place was boring. Bland. A long hallway. Front to back. Uninteresting doors for different rooms for different employees. Bulletins for who is at what table at what time. Whiteboards for who needs to know what, who is covering what section of the drafty palace that night. Typical linoleium cleaned floors that tapped beneath his feet as he hurried to leave the uncomfortable silence of the space. Echoes from a separate dimension stayed outside the walls. Calls, chants of a pained chorus stuck in the spell the casino casted unto them like a wicked witch from a children's tale.